The international response to the crisis in Libya has been remarkably quick and decisive. Where many other cases of mass atrocity crimes have failed to generate sufficient and timely political will to protect civilians at risk, the early response to Libya in 2011 has shown that the United Nations Security Council(UNSC) is able to give effect to the „responsibility to protect‟ norm. While not an implementing party in a legal sense, the Australian government has taken a forward-leaning diplomatic stance in helping to mobilize broad support for addressing this crisis. In light of the ongoing political controversy over armed humanitarian intervention, the Libyan case shows that state-based advocacy for human rights matters, given the on-going need to bolster the legitimacy of the principle. A discussion of Canberra's diplomatic activity is a prelude to an examination of the proceedings of the UN Security Council and the two key resolutions, the second of which gave effect to the forcible action. This article then considers three dimensions of the SC's implementation of the responsibility to protect (the language of the resolutions and the intriguing absence of a textual reference to the international community's responsibility to act; the expansive mandate for civilian protection in (SCR1973; and the first unanimous referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC, with novel support from the USA) The popular revolt spread rapidly from Tunisia to Egypt, and then from Egypt to Libya, threatening entrenched regimes and the status quo. For example, Libya‟s revolt turned into a bloody civil war, and spilling over of armaments everywhere in the country. In Tunisia, the Muslim movement (Nahda Party) led the country into social unrest. This popular revolt has challenged authoritarian rule in the whole region, and highlighted the widespread desire for a responsible government. Libya, in particular, is an evidential and In-exclusion example among other Arab revolts, that NTO played a major powerful militarized intervention in the Libya‟s revolt.
Keywords: Upheaval, Turmoil, Uprising, Revolts, NATO, Middle East Revolt, Libya, Status Quo, Authoritarian Regimes, Democracy, Stability, and NATO‟s Interventionism, Libya‟s Revolt, Vital interest, Responsibility protect, Humanitarian intervention, self-interest.